


Sidelines

by noticemepl0x



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Boys Will Be Boys, Dumb Bitch Behaviour, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Sarcasm, dumb boys, she's not a marysue I swear, they act their age, yukimura kinda an asshole tbh, zero braincells present
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26068900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noticemepl0x/pseuds/noticemepl0x
Summary: Enter Nakamura Tsuki: an ordinary person.Enter middle-school Japanese tennis players: beyond extraordinary.Join Tsuki in her journey to understanding middle-school boys in their natural habitat (it gets weird).
Relationships: boys/tennis
Kudos: 1





	1. The Far and Exotic Land of Canada

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, this is my rewrite of this story. I, on a whim one day, decided that it would be “fun” to read through my old fanfics, and it truly amazed me. I first wrote this way back in 2016 and looking back on it now? Boy am I embarrassed, because this was absolute garbage. Never in my life did I think I could write something so bad, but alas, middle school me really surprised me there. Never again.

_ [Late August, 2008] _

The blaring from the alarm clock made Marui groan, Mura-buchou was a slavedriver, practice at 5:30AM on a Friday morning was brutal (Marui knew this from experience). It was even worse now as they would have their first Nationals game in the next couple of weeks and Yukimura had assigned practice on all the days ending with “y”: before school, after school and for  _ hours _ on the weekend until the finals. They would be going to draw the matches soon and  _ boy,  _ was Yukimura ready to take home the crown and ensure that they did not  _ humiliate _ themselves like they had in the Kanto Regionals (again). Losing to Seigaku had humbled them, but Yukimura was not about to let that happen again. He also knew that if he  _ didn’t  _ show up to practice even once, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that Yukimura would come into his house in the middle of the night and beat him within an inch of his life (the dude was deceptively strong despite his otherwise frail-looking body). Practice was grueling (but worth it? We’ll see about that).

He sluggishly went through the motions of his morning routine before dragging his feet over to school. The burnished iron school gates seemed to loom over him, possibly signifying his impending death (again). Thankfully having some time before practice started, he munched on his treats (his Box had sweets aplenty), fueling up for when Sanada would inevitably wipe the ground with him, again. He offered one to Jackal when he set his bag next to him.

He was happy to mind his own business, enjoying the early morning air and the sweet whiff of morning dew, but alas, all good things must come to an end. Marui sighed into his third cupcake when the signs of Sanada-fukubuchou's arrival were identified. The angry bull himself scanned for Akaya (who never came this early) until his eyes landed on him.

"Marui!" The loud (but expected) shout jolted him into dropping his butterscotch cupcake (oh sweet cupcake, gone too soon… you will be remembered). "Go run 10 laps!" Sanada interrupted him before he could protest, "Go run 20! You're going to get fat from all that  _ shit  _ you eat!" Marui dropped everything (carefully) into his Box before running, there was no winning against Sanada (unless you were Yukimura, but he wasn’t, now was he?).

Niou, who had just arrived, laughed at his misfortune before he was assigned laps too. Sanada stared at the trickster for a long minute, "Another 30 laps, Niou. I already know that you're going to do something that'll warrant more laps, might as well get them out of the way now." Niou rolled his eyes and grumbled before begrudgingly breaking out into a leisurely jog with a jaunty tune on his lips.

"I'M HERE BUCHOU!" Funny that even at Niou’s turtle-like pace, he was still able to finish his laps before the baby of the team arrived.

"Tarundoru! Late, again! 50 laps, NOW!" the Devil of the courts jumped and ran. Niou shook his head, the kid never learned, as he neared the water fountain, he overheard Yanagi and Yukimura conspiring. Niou tried to listen in but could only hear words like: "Inui Juice," "Fuji," and "Team bonding."

Niou's eyes rolled into his head, the last time they went 'Team Bonding,' they were locked in an abandoned shed for a day. It had been the middle of winter, their only light source came from the fire that they managed to ignite with the lighter that had been in his left jacket pocket. When they got hungry, they were forced to eat from Marui’s confection box (Sanada chose to rather starve than eat that stuff, it nearly made Niou gag just remember how  _ disgustingly  _ sweet those treats were). As if  _ that  _ wasn’t enough, they were forced to listen to their captain tell horror stories (boy was that shit  _ spooky _ ). Their captain had most  _ definitely  _ gotten the rotten idea of these Team Bonding activities from Fuji, no doubt about it. Yanagi had  _ regaled  _ them tales of how Fuji liked to  _ personally _ force-feed the poor loser that finished last with the nastiest combinations of Inui’s worst juices. (Not even the devil himself was immune to that apparently).

He collapsed next to Marui before beginning to cry, "Whaddup?"

"They're planning to kill us! I swear!" "What?" Niou grabbed his shoulders before vigorously shaking him. "They're planning another Team Bonding Exercise!" Marui's eyes widened, and nearly started frothing at the mouth.

Why did he ever think that joining the tennis team would be a good idea?

Who knows.

-xXx-

When the bell rang for the school day to be over, Marui trudged his way down to the courts, again. Because who needed a social life when you had tennis? Not him apparently. Marui stretched, after school practice was a pain, he wouldn’t have minded if it was a couple times a week, but everyday was just starting to get on his nerves (not that he’d ever complain to the likes of Sanada or Yukimura). All he wanted was to go home, eat some good food, and sleep. But after Yukimura's operation over the summer, he was working them harder than ever. How was he supposed to complain about being tired to the dude who spent a year in the hospital?

He was just starting his warm up routine with his partner-in-crime when his phone rang. The familiar ringtone pierced through the air, it was his mom. Marui could've passed out when his captain grabbed the phone and answered it. ' _ Will Mom tell him embarrassing things? Will she tell him all his secrets? Will she show him his baby pictures? Will she tell him about how he broke his diet?!' _ he screamed internally. He wouldn’t put it past his mom to do just that (the snitch). He let out a breath of relief when Yukimura-buchou passed him his phone with a big smile.

"Hey mum!"

"Next week? With us?"

"What?! This late into the school year?"

"Well okay… She’s how old?"

"Yeah, okay. Just send me a picture of ‘em."

"Alright, sounds like fun, love you mum.", he ended the call and shoved his phone back into his bag. Everyone looked on in interest, Yukimura approached Marui, "What did she call you about?"

"Just about my aunt and cousin from Canada staying in Japan for the year.", "What do they look like?" Niou quipped.

"Dunno, mum's sending me a picture of them right now. They’re supposed to be coming over for dinner next week.”

Yanagi opened his notebook, "I was not aware that you had any family members living abroad.", "Yeah, me neither. Literally didn’t know I had family outside of Japan up until two minutes ago.” Marui then seemed to think for a bit, “Where even  _ is _ Canada?” 

Yanagi gave a judgemental(ly lidded) stare. “It’s the country above the United States.”

“Isn’t that the North Pole?” The baby of the team chirped. There was silence, “I’ve heard that they all live in igloos and have polar bears as pets.” another piped.

Yukimura fondly huffed before asking, "Will your cousin be going to school here?"

Marui shrugged, "Pretty sure, Mum says that their apartment is near Yanagi’s house." 

“That’s super close!” 

“If they’re staying, do you think she’ll be able to handle summers here then?” Marui stopped to think, he  _ hoped _ she could. He wondered if summers even  _ existed _ up North.

Sanada sighed and shook his head, their ignorance of basic geography aside, the Unholy Trinity of Marui, Niou, and Akaya were already a pain to deal with, but another Marui? God help him. 

Yukimura chuckled at his old friend, he could practically sense what he was thinking. He was honestly such an old man sometimes. He still used those flip phones that were made for the elderly (gifted from Atobe of all people), even Sanada’s grandpa had a touchscreen phone. He needed to lighten up, maybe this new girl could, or she would become the bane of his existence. Either was fine.

-xXx-

_ -A week later- _

" _ Our plane will be landing soon, please keep your seat belts buckled _ ," the voice announced. A girl looked up sharply, just a few more minutes and she would be touching down in Haneda Airport.

As the plane began to make its descent, she shook her mother awake, Nakamura Aiko grumbled, “Here already?”, the young girl chuckled before nodding.

The pair walked through to the main entrance before her eyes landed on a young boy (her age?) with garishly bright red hair that matched her mother’s. He was standing with a middle-aged man (most  _ definitely _ her uncle _ ) _ that had hair that matched the both of them. The young boy was holding up a sign that said  _ ‘Nakamura’ _ (in very childish writing might she add). Her mother seemed to become animated once she saw the man, running towards them and hugging him. She slowly followed, shyly greeting the family: “Hello uncle, cousin… My name’s Tsuki.” It was a stiff one, but at least she got her own name right,  _ this  _ time.

“Hi Tsu-Tsu! Can I call you Tsu-Tsu?” she nodded with a meek smile, “Great! I think we’re gonna be best friends!” before throwing his arms around her in a big hug. She froze in surprise before slowly wrapping her arms around him too (his smile was infectious it seemed).

Marui scanned her from head to toe. She was adorable, her picture was definitely cute, but the real thing was even cuter! Pale skin, pastel pink hair (bizarre hair colours seemed to run in the family), and a pair of sharp amethyst eyes (just like his!). She looked frail, ridiculously so. Her body seemed as if a strong wind would knock her over or blow her away. She looked like a little doll, he felt the instant need to hug her and spoil her, his little cousin!

The little family (and its new additions!) eventually filed out of the airport and began driving to the new Nakamura residence. On the way there, Marui and Tsuki got to know each other. As it turned out, the sweet tooth ran in the family, they were the same age,  _ and _ they loved to bake! Now what were the chances of  _ that _ ? They eventually got to talking about tennis (she didn’t really know or care about it sadly), she smiled when Marui began to passionately rant about how great it felt to know that they were the best in the country (but still slipped in some  _ very  _ aggressive opinions about a Sanada). Pity that the only thing she knew about tennis was that people hit a ball around with a bigger badminton racquet.

The car eventually parked at a large apartment complex. Marui recognised the area immediately: Rich People Street (dubbed by yours truly), coincidentally Yanagi’s street and just a couple blocks away from his own. He grabbed the heftiest looking luggage bag (he was, in fact, very strong) and lugged it up to the second floor (“Strength comes from the legs!” Quoth Sanada Genichiro, circa. 2007). Apartment 210 of Rich People Street was, as expected, much more luxurious than many other apartments that he had seen. 

The space was… well… spacious. There were two bedrooms with double beds (Tsuki chose the one that had the balcony), a lovely living room (lots of light), a small dining room table, and a u-shaped kitchen paired with two bar stools. It was most definitely more than what two people needed, but hey! More space meant more places to put stuff, right?

She had her cousin put her luggage down in her new room and let him show his “bulging biceps” off to show his strength (“Aren’t I strong? Don’t underestimate me!”) before she flopped onto her new bed. It was soft and quite comfortable. But she upgraded the comfy level by taking out the few stuffed animals that she had packed and laid them down. Marui immediately threw himself on them, testing out their fluffiness, he deemed it adequate (though the penguin was a touch too firm, in his opinion).

As they waited for their parents to finish setting up the rest of the home, they had a very nice conversation.

“Hey!” Marui babbled excitedly, “Tsu-Tsu! You’re gonna be going to my school!”. She smiled, “Yeah?”, “That’s right!” Marui pumped his chest out, “How does it feel to know that  _ you _ , my dear sweet cousin, shall soon be attending the best school in the region?”

Tsuki pretended to think, “Well I don’t know if it’s the  _ best _ school if  _ you  _ go there.” she turned her cheek when he pouted at her. “Tsu-Tsu! You’re so mean! How can you bully your cute little cousin like this?!” he cried.

“Mmm, I wouldn’t call it  _ bullying. _ ” she turned her attention to her nails (her pinky had the slightest chip, how annoying), “I’m just telling it like it is.” 

Unfortunately, sweet little Marui couldn’t take such harassment and ran to snitch on her to her mom. “Auntieeee! Tsuki’s bullying meee!” (she really had to applaud him, his crocodile tears were impressive)

Marui Sr. took one look at his son and sighed, “Don’t know where you get these dramatics from, because I know for a  _ fact _ that it wasn’t me  _ or _ your mother.” he then muttered under his breath, “It must be middle school syndrome.”

Marui felt his jaw drop, what father would betray their son like this? He turned his distraught face to his aunt, hoping she would pity him (he was very pitiful!). She smiled in amusement and pat his head before resuming her conversation with his dad. Nobody was on his side!

And so, Marui sniffled all the way back to Tsuki’s room, defeated. He rounded the corner and saw her smugly laying there, like a tiger about to eat a little lamb. He pouted and turned his nose to her, ignoring her. Too bad she didn’t actually care, he broke after a few minutes, “Tsu-Tsu!!! I’m sorry!” he cried as he wiggled his way into her folded arms. She rolled her eyes at him before petting his head like on would a puppy, “Whatever.” 

As they huddled under the warm (Totoro!) sheets while watching Spirited Away, Tsuki heard her mom call them over, “Tsuki! Pack your things! We’re staying at your uncle’s for the night!”. Marui perked up at the fact that his sweet little cousin would be staying with him and left his cousin’s warm bed to trot over to put his shoes on. He looked over at his cousin’s tiny little feet slipping into her shoes and he couldn’t help the full-bodied cringe. She was wearing lime green Crocs with cute little ladybug charms (not to mention the mismatched character socks! the worst crime there was). The charms may have upped the aesthetic value of the look, but it didn’t change the fact that they were vomit-inducingly ugly.

The car ride had been hard, he had been fixated -plagued really, by her hideous shoes. He couldn’t stop thinking about them, his attention span was really challenging him today. One minute he’d be attentively listening to every single one of his cousin’s words and then he’d catch a glimpse of her shoes in the corner of his eye and all the sudden that was all he could focus on. Man, were they  _ ugly _ . 

He thanked whoever was up there for the short car ride, heaving out a sigh of relief when he finally saw her take them off. He could practically taste the  _ nabe _ from here! “We’re home!!!” He yelled into the house, all he got was a muffled  _ “Welcome home…” _ from his mother. One would think that their mother would be rather happy to see their child, but alas, the eldest Marui child had long become accustomed to such bullying in his own house.

After the Marui (and Nakamura) family finished eating their amazing dinner (courtesy of Madam Marui), Marui excitedly gave a tour of his humble abode for his cousin before finally ending the tour in his domain. “And  _ this,  _ dearest cousin of mine, is  _ my  _ room!” he waved her into the messy room with flourish before realizing his mistake, “Gimme a minute,” he said before hurriedly shutting the door in her face, she heard the sound of shuffling feet and doors opening and slamming shut, she heard something fall, pencils dropping to the ground, him cursing after he hit something before he finally reopened the door.

“Sorry about that! Technical difficulties, you know how it is, I do hope that you are willing to forgive me!” Tsuki fondly sighed at him, taking in the now semi-tidy room. It looked just like any other teenage boy’s room. A spattering of action figures displayed at the top of his bookshelf, his school bag was strewn on his desk, his bedsheets haphazardly made, and a few stray knicknacks left on his bed stand.

As the rest of the night droned on, Tsuki discovered that her sweet cousin had tennis practice the next morning, she strong-armed him into asking his captain if she could come. And what would you know, she was due for a meeting with her cousin’s teammates. She wasn’t exactly all that excited to meet them (if Marui’s complaining were to be trusted), but hey! It’s not like she had anything else to do for the weekend! Neither did she know  _ anybody _ at her new school. Might as well get to know at least  _ some _ now.

Although she was anxious to meet new people, she wanted to be well rested.

Thus, Tsuki got the bed while poor Marui was forced to sleep on the cold, hard floor.


	2. Tennis Players are Weird

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsuki's first introduction to Rikkai (poor girl)

Marui almost didn’t wake up. He had been so occupied with getting to know his little Tsu-Tsu that time had completely gotten away from him. BUT, he was now a reborn, repackaged, and all-new ultra responsible Marui Bunta, so he was able to wake up in the end (but just barely though).

He looked at his little cousin, sweetly slumbering away, debating whether or not he should wake her up by body slamming her or yelling into her ear. His plans were unfortunately foiled when his aggressive stare woke her up and she was left to groggily stare into his eyes.

“... Hello...?” she mumbled.

He decided to answer her by gracefully slamming his full (only _slightly_ heavier than a feather) weight down onto her, “Wake up if you still wanna come to practice with me.” he grinned. 

She groaned as he began to slowly roll his body closer and closer towards her head before finally pinning her face down into the bed with his shoulder, “I can’t get up if you’re on me!” she yelled into his Dragonball bedsheets, but it just came out muffled instead. Marui spared a look at the clock on his windowsill before sighing and finally getting off of her. She glared up at him and childishly turned to face the wall and flapped the sheets over her head.

“Are you mad at me?” Marui whined. An annoyed huff was all he got, “Fine! You can stay in bed while I make breakfast, okay? See you soon!”. He gave her one last eyeroll before rushing down to the kitchen, in hindsight he probably shouldn’t have wasted so much time annoying her, there was a possibility that he might be late for the first time today. If he was, well… a shudder ran through his body as he thought about what Sanada (let alone Yukimura) would do to him today (he crossed his fingers and hoped that they’d spare his life). As he was speed-running through his usual breakfast routine, he phoned Yanagi, hoping to _god_ he’d be able to drive them (it was a yes!!!). He finally settled on a quick but filling breakfast (and lunch), just as he was about to go and wake his cousin up, she met him downstairs with a pep in her step.

He unceremoniously shoved a little lunch box into her hands before pushing her out the door, “Yanagi’s outside, let’s go”. She wasn’t even able to wonder who this Yanagi was before she was shoved into a black car. “Good morning Yanagi-san! Thanks so much for driving us today!” her cousin chirped, she quickly repeated his words politely. Yanagi-san turned her neck around to get a look at her.

“Hi sweetheart, I’ve never seen you before. What’s your name?” she said in the typical ‘Mom when her child brings home new friends’ voice. Her voice was impressive, but Tsuki’s was better.

“My name’s Tsuki!” she piped cheerfully with a smile, “I’m Bunta’s cousin, I just got into the country last night!”

She could see Yanagi-san’s eyebrow rise, “ _Oh_? Will you be transferring to Rikkai?”, Tsuki nodded. “Well I’m _sure_ ,” she side-eyed her son sitting in the passenger seat, “that my boy would _love_ to show you around the area. After all, it’s his _job_ as student council, isn’t that right, Renji?” “... Yes, mom.”

Tsuki quickly put her hands up to decline, “Oh no, it’s okay! My cousin can show me around!” she panicked.

“It’s fine,” Yanagi finally spoke, before turning to look at her (with his eyelids!) for the first time since they got into the car, “You can ask me anything about school, have you gotten your schedule yet?”

She gave a little nod before showing him the email that the school had sent over on her phone. He took a good hard look at it (she didn’t know that it was possible to see through eyelids) before speaking, “Hmm… You got put into my homeroom, probably because so many exchange students left last term. You also have three classes with Yukimura, art with Yagyuu, _music_ with Sanada and home ec. with Jackal and your cousin.” 

Marui excitedly squealed at the thought of his sweet little Tsu-Tsu being his new cooking partner. He could already see it, the dynamic duo, “Tsu-Buns” would be their team name (would also be a great bakery shop name). 

Yanagi let Marui have his moment before continuing, “Has the school emailed you it’s map yet?”, “No” she mumbled. He clicked his tongue before whipping his own phone out and inputting himself as a new contact and sending her it.

He handed her phone back (yellow with this month’s favourite Hello Kitty charms), “There, I’ve sent it to you and now you have my contact information. If you need anything, don’t hesitate to message me.”. She softly thanked him, hopefully he did that because he wanted to and not just because of pressure from his mom. But if it was because of the former then she was happy! She just made a new friend!

The rest of the short drive was filled with approving looks from Yanagi-san through the rearview mirror. So great that day one (1) in a new country and _already_ mothers were looking to matchmake her with their sons (not that said son wasn’t cute, but still!). 

As Yanagi-san dropped them off at the local tennis courts she beckoned Tsuki over by rolling down her window, “You’re such a sweet girl, Tsuki. You really _must_ come over for dinner sometime!”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to bother you guys.” she sweatdropped.

Yanagi-san grabbed her hands, “No no! I _insist_! Here, give me your phone. I’ll put in my contact details so we can have you and your guardians over! Are you staying with the Marui’s?”, “No, just my mum and I.”, “That’s great! We’d _love_ to have her over!”. After she said all she had to say, she drove off. Tsuki and the boys looked down at her phone and saw that Yanagi-san had really put the effort into filling every single field there was for a contact. Address, work address, mobile number, home number, work number (with extension), husband’s number, grandparent’s number, personal and work emails and daytime work hours. (it was a bit excessive, just a bit).

Tsuki blinked at Yanagi, “Do you think your mom likes me?”

“Not sure, probably.” he shrugged.

Marui shook his head, “That was so out of character for your mom. She’s never done that with me!”

“That’s because you’re not a girl, Marui.”

“How would she know?”, when he saw that he had managed to shock Yanagi, he couldn’t help but tease him more, “How would _you_ know?”

Yanagi huffed, “Marui, I have seen you naked _more_ than enough times in the locker rooms than I really care to think about. Also, correction: You are not a _pretty_ girl.”

Taken aback, Marui felt quite offended, “Woah woah _woah_! That was uncalled for! For all we know, I could be a _very_ pretty girl in an alternate universe.”, “But this isn’t an alternative universe, now is it Marui?”.

Tsuki couldn’t help but snicker, “He’s got you there, Bunta. If you were a girl, I think you’d look the exact same,” she paused for dramatic effect, “in my opinion.”. 

Marui sniffled at the betrayal, “Now you’re teaming up with people to bully me?!!”.

“Not my fault you get offended easy.”

Yanagi couldn’t help but sigh at the boy’s antics, it was best to just start walking towards their courts before Marui actually began crying (T minus 47 seconds according to previous data).

As they neared the team’s favourite courts, Yanagi waved over to Yukimura. “I’ve brought Marui and his cousin.”, jerking his thumb behind him at the bickering pair in lieu of greeting.

Yukimura looked behind his friend at the two, completely dismissing the teammate (seeing Marui so often got boring) and instead focussing on the girl. She was petite, ridiculously so. She almost looked like a storybook fairy: small, wispy, pastel pink hair, and big eyes. He was also rather satisfied to finally see somebody who was thinner than he was, _‘Looks like I can finally beat somebody in a fistfight’_. As they got closer and closer, the girl seemed to close in on herself, almost as if she was afraid of him (she should be).

“Mura-buchou! This is Nakamura Tsuki! The cousin I told you would be coming today! Say hi!”. “Hi!” she piped while raising her eyebrows, canting her head to the side and stretching her lips over her teeth in a pathetic excuse for a smile (not one of her best moments). 

Yukimura’s eyes shined with mirth as he gave a little wave, “Tsu-Tsu! Listen up! Are you listening?” she vigorously nodded. “Now, after a long year in the hospital and making a _miraculous_ recovery in order to _seize_ victory yet _again_ for this year’s National trophy is… drumroll please!” he paused and looked at her meaningfully, only continuing when she gave him his resounding drum rolls on her thighs. “Our captain! The _pride and joy_ of Rikkai Daigaku Fuzoku Chuu! The Child of God _himself_! Yukimura Seiichi!!!” he announced with a flourish.

Tsuki blinked and listened to Yukimura when he began speaking, “Now, before you ask, I wasn’t hospitalised for anything serious,”, “Okay, that’s grea-”, “it was just stage two lung cancer.”

Tsuki’s eyes widened before she began to sputter, “Oh my god! That must have bee-”, “Haha, just joking!” he grinned at her scrunched little face, “It was just a malignant brain tumour!”

“Umm… ah that’s horr-”, “Just kidding! It was actually just a viral infection that almost paralyzed me from the waist down!”. He chuckled as her eyes began to water, she was close to tears at this point, “O-okay, umm… A-are you okay!?”. He smiled at her pretty eyes looking up at him (he was taller than her haha) through her lashes. 

He couldn’t resist patting her head, “Alright, I’ll tell you the truth. I had an immune disorder.”. He gave her a soft smile, “Not joking! _This_ time. I promise!” he beamed at her when she gave a shaky little nod.

Yanagi shook his head, somebody new just meant somebody new to mess with. Poor girl. Whatever, moving on. He called all the other regulars over to meet their new friend.

Akaya, you could always count on him to not know basic manners (bless his soul), “Who the hell’re you?!” “Akaya!”, Sanada slapped the back of his head, “Don’t be fucking rude to people!”.

Next up was Niou, he sidled up to her, “Don’t mind him, my fair lady! He can’t help it! He’s uh… got a small brain after all that smacking Sanada’s given his poor little head!”. He cheerfully explained while emphasising his words by putting the poor boy into a headlock and giving him a harsh noogie on the head.

“Talk about first impressions…” Marui mumbled with his head in his hands, “Whatever,” he huffed, “I’ll introduce you to the guys one by one… I guess.”. Marui took a steadying breath, “ANYWAYS! From left to right… We got Yagyuu, pretty cool dude. Next to him, Niou, pretty okay dude. Jackal! He’s my best buddy!” he stage-whispered to her. “ _Then_ , we have the baby of the team, Akaya, the rude one with the seaweed on his head in case you were wondering. And that’s Sanada. Got it?”, she nodded, “Great! Let’s get to practice!”. He led her to the benches, “Now you just sit tight! I’ll come on over whenever I get a chance to! If you get bored, you can walk around and get something to eat or just walk home!”, he jolted when Sanada began to call him over, “Loveyoubye!” he yelled as he ran onto the courts.

As she watched him walk away, she was left to sit on the bench with Yukimura (the dude who _just_ joked about having three different life-changing medical conditions at once). If he didn’t want to talk, then she wouldn’t either. For a good couple of moments, Yukimura had been staring at her (she tried to pretend that she didn’t see that), her eyes kept shifting towards him before he (finally!) broke the silence, “So… what classes do you have this term? Do you know yet?”

She nodded, she’d give him the benefit of the doubt, “Yanagi-san says that we’ve got three classes together?” “Oh?” “Pretty sure we have… French, world history and Japanese together.”

“Do you have any other classes with any of us?” he asked gently.

Tsuki tried to remember what the hell Yanagi had told her in the car (she was a _little_ preoccupied with staring at his eyelids, just a little). “Mmm… I know I have home ec. with Bunta and Jackal and I don’t remember the rest.” she shrugged, “All I know is that I’ve got music and art leftover.”

“Music and art… music and art…” Yukimura began to mumble as he began to think, canting his head this way and that as if it would help him think, “Is music… fourth period for you?” he questioned.

She nodded.

Yukimura made unnerving eye contact with her for a much longer period of time than she was comfortable with (guy was apparently _also_ a staring contest champion), “Well… I don’t know how to break this to you, but… I think you have music class with _Sanada_.”, Tsuki’s eyes shifted across his face confusedly.

“Is there something… wrong with Sanada-san’s music class…?” (she learned her lesson about taking this guy’s words seriously).

She could see that he was mulling over how to tell her something, his tongue rolling around in his mouth, the imprint of it visible under his cheek. “Well… There’s nothing _wrong_ with the class itself. It’s just Sanada. Let’s just say that his music classes are… _legendary_ at our school!” he smiled. She canted her head towards him, encouraging him to expand on the topic, but he remained silent (fine, keep your secrets!).

While she had nothing to say in response, it opened up a general subject on school to talk about, by the end of today, she’d (probably) have somebody to talk to in class (which was great because she was supposed to spend half the day with this guy everyday anyway). Eventually, their gentle rapport with each other was of course ruined by her red-haired menace of a cousin (who else???).

“Oh? And what’d she say after she found out Sunohara wa-” “Tsu-Tsu! Come hang out with me!” he yelled before aggressively pulling her over to where Niou, Jackal and Kirihara were sitting under a tree. “Hey guys, guess who I have?” he yelled at them before making her sit between himself and Kirihara. 

Kirihara looked almost skittish (probably cowed from Marui’s glare), “Hi Marui-senpai’s cousin… sorry for yelling at you earlier…”.

Her cousin craned his neck towards the boy, “Mmm… you can do better than THAT. Try _actually_ apologizing. And use her actual name this time!”.

“B-but Marui-senpai! You never told us her name!” Kirihara cried. Jackal shook his head, Marui was _just_ airheaded enough to forget the simplest of things.

Marui chuckled awkwardly, “Oops! This is Tsuki… Nakamura-senpai to you!”.

The boy then began to spew out some of the most sincere words he knew, “Senpai! I…um... _pray_ that you can forgive me! F-for my mean words that I said to you a while ago!” Kirihara turned to her cousin with a scrunched face, “W-was that good?”. The boy beamed when Marui gave him The Nod. 

She gave him a little smile before patting his little (seaweed) head, “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it!” she puffed up her chest, “ _This_ senpai has thick skin! Words do _nothing_ to me!”

Kirihara seemed to turn meek, “Y-you think my head is pretty! Nobody’s ever said that to me before!” he pouted. “Everybody else is mean and says I look like seaweed! You’re my favourite senpai now!” he beamed at her. Tsuki couldn’t help but smile back at his innocent (and a bit airheaded) self.

Marui rolled his eyes before turning his attention over to Niou (oddly quiet, suspicious), “So what did you want to tell us about?”

“What?!” Niou grumbled with his mouth full.

“I said… _what did you want to tell us about?!_ ” her cousin purposefully shouted.

“Oh!” Niou exclaimed before plopping his lunch box down and hunting for something in his bag, “Atobe got interviewed by Monthly Pro Tennis, again”, he deadpanned while pulling out a magazine.

Jackal finally looked up from his delicious ramen lunch (it looked _really_ good). “What’d they interview him for _this_ time? He practically gave his entire life story on his last feature!”

“Did you really think that _Atobe_ of all people would get tired of talking about himself?” Niou advised sagely.

Jackal seemed to think about it before stammering, “W-well we don’t really know Atobe all that well to say anything like that about him…”. “Well we know enough about him to know!” Kirihara cut in.

Niou rolled his eyes, “ _Anyways_ , this time he gave them a… a fuckin’ ah… exclusive house tour.”. “Of what?!”. “His ah... _Tennis Room._ ”.

Tsuki stayed silent and meekly ate her lunch, not understanding anything they were talking about (the fifth wheel some would say).

“His _“Tennis Room”_ , why does he have a room specifically for tennis???” Marui pinched the bridge of his nose, “You know what? Nevermind. He’s rich.”.

At this, Niou seemed to become angry, “Being rich apparently means you’re also a fucking liar apparently!”. Niou angrily flapped the magazine at Marui’s face pointing to a paragraph, “Exhibit A! _‘And I will now show you my Hyotei Hall of Heroes’_ , quoted by Inoue Mamoru: senior editor at Monthly Pro Tennis, August 2008!”. Niou then jabbed his finger at the photo next to it, “It’s a fucking WALL! His _‘Hall of Heroes’_ , is a fucking wall!”

“How dare he!”. Kirihara was apparently an avid Niou supporter.

“What kind of fucking monster would say such a thing!”, Niou was up in arms. “When somebody says a _hall_ … I expect a fucking space that has _two_ walls on either side of me! Is it really _that_ fucking hard to install _one_ , ONE wall in his multibillon dollar house???” Niou grumbled in dissatisfaction.

Her cousin stretched his hand over to him, “Lemme see!” “Take a look for yourself!”

Marui flopped it over his lap, letting Tsuki finally see the face behind the man that doesn’t know the difference between one (1) wall and two (2) walls. She was almost in shock, the entire feature took up at least five pages (how much stuff is in it to require five separate pages of content?).

All of the sudden, her cousin began to chuckle, he raised his head to speak to Niou, “Aren’t these just the Hyotei Trading Cards made into plaques?”. Niou nodded gravely.

“Trading cards of what?” she asked confusedly.

Jackal kindly explained that: “The Hyotei Trading Cards were featured a couple months ago. Atobe made these trading cards as a… business card to give out to all the media people. There’s a _lot_ of them.”.

Tsuki nodded dumbly before turning her attention to a close-up of one of the cards. The back was a rather pretty grey-blue with the school's logo on it (much cooler than Rikkai’s). The front (an exclusive never-before seen 10-star UR holographic Atobe apparently) was a very nice photo of the guy (handsome!). It also had his stat chart, position, and favourite moves along the bottom. She took a look at the _Wall_ of Heroes, the regulars lined up in the middle of the wall (10-star UR Atobe got the middle) before everybody else got their own plaque.

“Who’re all these people?” (there was no way 426 people, quoted Inoue Mamoru, would be on a tennis team).

With his mouth full, Niou responded, “The biggest one’s are this year’s regulars, all the smaller ones are all the members of the club _since_ Atobe first became captain in first year. That’s three _years_ worth of people.”.

While Tsuki had nothing to say to that, there was a question that plagued her mind, “But he did this… for what?”

“Something about how _‘once a person is about to make it to the next stage of life, they begin to realize that their memories are worth more than gold’_.”, Niou rolled his eyes, “He’s just going to fucking high school!”

As everybody continued to talk over her, she flipped through the other pages of the exclusive. The Tennis Room wasn’t _just_ his Hall of Heroes, but the other three walls (yes, 416 plaques somehow fit on just one (1) wall) had even more Hyotei memorabilia. The wall opposite the Hall of Heroes was just a major blown-up mural of the school’s emblem with three mannequins donned standing in front ( _‘These are my uniforms since first year! My current one will be put on once Nationals is over’_ ). Another wall had pictures of the team while the last wall had rotating podiums of shoes, grip tapes, old racquets ( _‘Oh this? Haha, I’ve been MVP for the past three years’_ ). She couldn’t fathom how dedicated and obsessed with one thing that somebody could be. 

As the boys were called back from lunch, she was forced to sit with Lord Yukimura yet again (she was still _quite_ iffy about him, she just couldn’t get over his kind of _humour_ ).

But Tsuki still had her first day of school tomorrow. While she knew eight people out of 2500 plus, she was (un)prepared to introduce herself six separate times to people ( _and_ see Lord Yukimura three times a day).

But alas, this is what she signed up for when she decided that she wanted to spend the year in Japan.


End file.
